With resources like Tim Ferriss’ 4-Hour Workweek advocating virtual assistants for your business, it’ll come as no surprise if you want to hire one as well.
There is no doubt that virtual talent will be a good addition to your business. In fact, we talk about the reasons why you should hire virtual talent here. But hiring virtual talent can be a double-edged sword if you don’t outsource for the right reasons.
In this blog post, we talk about the reasons why you should NOT hire virtual talent for your business.
Reason 1: You hire someone to completely replace you
We hate to burst your bubble. But, if you hire someone to immediately replace you so that you don’t have to worry about your business anymore, then outsourcing isn’t for you.
Why?
Because no one understands the business more than you do. And if you hire someone outside your business to completely take over, they will leave your business to shambles (or steal the business from you!).
Anyone you hire externally won’t immediately know your products and SOPs well enough to run things properly without you. The best thing you can do is to pass responsibilities slowly to your virtual talent. Slowly integrate them into your business so that they don’t get overwhelmed and can master things one at a time.
Eventually, once they gain your trust and understand the business, you will be able to remove yourself from the business and start working on more important things.
Reason 2: You don’t have systems and processes in place
Without proper systems and processes in place, you won’t be able to set the proper expectations for your virtual talent in terms of work flow and output quality.
I’m sure that you run your business a certain way, and it’s only natural that you will want the people you hire to do the same. If you don’t want your virtual talent to be constantly asking you questions on how to do basic tasks, then be sure that you have a documented workflow of everything.
This is particularly crucial if you have clients to serve and want to maintain the same quality of output all the time.
Reason 3: You are not willing to spend time to train them
When your virtual talent is newly hired, you will need to dedicate a certain amount of time to train them on how they are supposed to perform certain tasks. You will also need to train them on the tools, get them properly onboarded, and keep tabs on them. They will need your guidance and you can’t just go AWOL on them once you hire them.
Not only will you need to spend time, but on some occasions, you will need to spend as well. If there are things that you and your virtual talent aren’t very familiar with, simply buy a reliable online course for them. So be sure to be fully committed to training them!
Reason 4: You can’t afford to hire someone new
The reality is that hiring someone new is an additional expense to your business. If you can’t afford to hire or aren’t willing to invest in outsourcing, then this shouldn't be an option for you yet.
If you have a rather small budget, you can choose to outsource from other countries such as India or the Philippines where there is tons of great talent as well. And be sure once you hire someone that you have a steady inflow of cash so you can afford to keep paying them monthly.
Reason 5: You expect that person to know everything
You can’t rely on a jack of all trades when finding virtual talent and expect them to know how to do everything already. And even if you choose to hire a specialist instead, that person can’t possibly know your entire business in and out.
So if you expect to hire an expert so that (going back to the first point) you can go and let go of the business, then you will, ultimately, have no more business in the end.
Are You Committed Enough?
And those are the 5 reasons why you should NOT hire virtual talent. Do take note that choosing to hire someone is a huge commitment and can’t be something you do on a whim, especially if this is your first time doing it.
If you need help in finding virtual talent for your business, don’t hesitate to contact us!
RESOURCES:
Cambria, G. (2021, May 31). 5 Reasons Why You Should NOT Hire a Virtual Assistant. LinkedIn.
(2016, April 5). 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Hire a Virtual Assistant. Virtual Coworker.
